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Canon says that the Canon XF300 Professional Camcorder is on it’s way to me for test & review. This camera features 50Mbps MPEG-2 4:2:2 recording to Compact Flash (CF) Cards. This high data rate should push aside all issue with compression, even though it does use the older MPEG-2 codec as opposed to the newer MPEG-4 / H.264 / AVCHD codec that a lot of newer camcorders and cameras use. The advantage to MPEG-2 is that, with a lot less compression, today’s even faster computer should handle it with ease, as opposed to the much more difficult time today’s systems have with AVCHD footage. Read more…

It’s tough keeping a blog going when you are busy with projects and one of those projects takes you up one of the loneliest highways— the Dalton Highway, up to Prudhoe Bay / Deadhorse, Alaska, where the oil is pumped for the Alaska Pipeline.

I was re-shooting an episode of IEBA’s Alaska outdoor adventure series, Wilderness Adventures Off The Beaten Path and shooting it in HD. That’s full HD, not HDV. But using two different high-end consumer camcorders and writing about it for Event DV magazine.

We’re working on a comparison review of various Compact Flash technologies for video, now that consumer media can now be used for recording the HDV production standard format (AVCHD doesn’t count, yet).

Sandisk made a serious jump by pushing throughput from 20 MBps to 40MBps with their new Extreme IV cards. For anyone taking delivery of Sony’s new HDV camcorders, click over to the Tech-STORE – to our new MEDIA- page and snap up the latest version of wicked-fast media!

Sony’s new HDV camcorders, promised for February, are indeed shipping and arriving in people’s hands. This is excellent news as these new camcorders elevate HDV and give us HDV-quality video on readily available and cheap compact flash cards.

One of the best ways to find out about every nook and cranny of these camcorders is to actually RTFM. Well, I’ve got that for you… plus a recap of all seven of the camcorder’s on-screen menus…. and more!

Sony recently unveiled its latest HDV camcorders to the world. This wasn’t just any ordinary product announcement; with the release of these new models, HDV arrived as a true professional video acquisition technology.

Just as MiniDV was a format that evolved into DVCAM and DVCPRO, and eventually DV itself became acceptable for broadcast, and even feature film production, HDV started as a “consumer” version of HD. But it has evolved dramatically in Sony’s latest models.

At the GV Expo 07, I had the opportunity to see the exciting new HDV camcorders. While there, I saw that Sony had a whole schedule of instructional presentations about many of there newest products.

Juan Martinez was the scheduled speaker for the HDV camcorders. His deep knowledge of the HVR-S270 and the HVR-Z7U, as well as the PMW-EX1 is clearly evident. He is able to compare and contrast numerous functions between all three of the camcorders with ease in response to audience questions.